Roommate of UCF gunman speaks out for first time, describes horror inside dorm

WPTV

5:48 AM, Mar 21, 2013

'I’m not going out like that.' That's what Arabo Babakhani said he thought when he realized his UCF roommate James Seevakumaran had a gun.

UCF

ORLANDO, Fla. - A roommate of the Florida college dropout behind an aborted plan to attack students at the University of Central Florida says he rarely interacted with the plotter but was surprised by what happened.

Chris Folk said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that he only had one meaningful conversation with James Oliver Seevakumaran and that otherwise he "always looked off in space" when he talked.

The 30-year-old Seevakumaran shot and killed himself early Monday as police officers arrived in response to the fire alarm and a 911 call from another roommate.

Seevakumaran was found with guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and homemade bombs.

Another roommate of Seevakumaran's, Arabo Babakhani, who was reportedly the person to call 911, spoke to UCF's news service about the incident.

"I just saw what was going on and I was like, ‘I'm not going out like that,' so I slammed the door and I just crouched," Babakhani told UCF Knightly News .

"I thought I was in a good degree of safety in my room," he said. "My biggest concern was him shooting through the door, shooting through the walls."

Babakhani told the campus news service that Seevakumaran was a loner and socially awkward.

"He's not the type of person to voluntarily speak," he told UCF Knightly News . "He just cooks food, spends time in his room ... on his laptop all the time."

Babakhani said no one came to see Seevakumaran for Thanksgiving.

"He just cooked a whole Thanksgiving meal for himself."

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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